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List of armed conflicts involving the United States
The history of armed conflicts involving the United States of America spans a period of more than four centuries. A period ranging from the early era of European colonization and the formation of the new national polity that is to become the United States, to its evolvement through technological and political upheavals into a decisively modern republic and military force, and ascent onto the world stage, through the calamities of the 20th century, as the largely unrivaled imperial superpower that it is today. Armed conflicts in the colonial and early national period The lines of conflict demarcating the wars, rebellions, and revolutions in the North American colonial and national period can be traced far back into early pre-Columbian times. However, due to the scarcity of written sources, not least resulting from the Christian colonizers destroying a sizable amount of original Maya writings, deeming them to be heretical, historians typically make the early European settlements as their initial point of departure, of which sources are more plentiful. A further concern highlighted by historians, relating to history of slavery and colonialism in particular, is the inherent unevenness of the terrain in which conflicts erupt, and often tremendous disproportionality of means by which they are fought and settled. As historian Ira Berlin points out slavery, by its very definition, poses a profound asymmetry of power: "For three centuries, slave masters mobilized enormous resources that streched across continents and oceans and employed them with great ferocity in an effort to subdue their human property. Slaves, for their part, had little to depend upon but themselves." As such, four distinctive lines of conflict can be identified weaving through the colonial and early national period: Firstly, the conflicts between the European colonists and the Native American peoples whose land was being taken from them. Secondly, the rivaling between the European states' to subjugate the Americas. A rivalry that both settlers and Native Indians soon find themselves to be invariably and increasingly caught up in. Thirdly, the mounting tensions and armed conflicts between the settlers and their rulers in Europe. And lastly, as violence between the white people grew, so too did the revolutionary fervor of the African slaves in their quest for freedom through armed insurrection. 19th-century armed conflicts 20th-century armed conflicts 21st-century armed conflicts See also * Military history of the United States * American imperialism * Indian removal * Foreign policy of the United States * Timeline of United States military operations * List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States * List of massacres in the United States * List of wars fought by the United States * United States involvement in regime change * United States war crimes * Genocide of indigenous peoples * United States military casualties of war * List of ongoing armed conflicts References External links * Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK) ** Conflict Barometer – Describes recent trends in conflict development, escalations, and settlements * A Continent Divided: The U.S.-Mexico War , Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, the University of Texas at Arlington * Timeline of wars involving the United States, Histropedia * U.S. Periods of War and Dates of Recent Conflicts, Congressional Research Service Category:Wars involving the United States United States Wars Wars